Burnout among Chinese live streamers: Prevalence and correlates

Background The prevalence of burnout among live streamers remains largely unknown. This study aims to investigate the prevalence and factors associated with burnout among Chinese live streamers. Methods A cross-sectional study recruited 343 full-time live streamers from 3 companies in Changsha city. Socio-demographic and occupational characteristics were collected using self-designed items. Job stress was assessed using the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ-22), while supervisor and coworker support were evaluated using the last 8 items of the JCQ-22. Burnout was assessed using the 17-item Chinese version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS). Results Our findings revealed that 30.6% of live streamers experienced burnout. Lower levels of education (OR = 2.65 and 3.37, p = 0,005 and 0.003), higher monthly income (OR = 10.56 and 11.25, both p = 0.003), being an entertainment-oriented streamer (OR = 2.13, p = 0.028), continuous walking during live streams (OR = 2.81, p = 0.006), significant drop in follower count (OR = 2.65, P = 0.006), live streaming during the daytime (OR = 3.75, p = 0.001), and higher support from supervisors and coworkers (OR = 3.66, p = 0.001) were positively associated with burnout. However, the effects of education and drop in followers on burnout were not significant in the multivariate logistic models (p = 0.321 and 0.988). Conclusions Burnout among Chinese live streamers is associated with income, being an entertainment streamer, engaging in continuous walking during live streams, conducting live streams during the daytime, and experiencing excessive support from supervisors and coworkers.

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Background
Webcaster is defined as a person who broadcasts live over the internet.The rapidly increasing webcasting industry embodies a great economic value.The total amount of financing and the market size related to the webcasting industry have reached 6.23 billion and 193.03 billion, respectively (China Internet Network Information Center, 2020).The webcasting industry brings a huge number of job opportunities and webcaster as a high-income job attracts a large number of people entering.A survey about the income of webcaster in China shows that 93% of webcasters have a monthly income above 4500 Chinese Yuan (CNY), equal to 706 dollars, which is much higher than 2682 CNY of the national per capita income (IiMedia Data Center, 2020).
Meanwhile, this job has a low barrier to entry.On one hand, with the optimization and upgrading of the internet communication technology, smartphone and applications, as well as the reduction of holding and use cost, ordinary people have the basic hardware and equipment to be a webcaster.On the other hand, being a webcaster requires almost no special skill training requirement.Hence, the webcaster has developed into an attractive and hot career.By the end of 2020 year, the number of webcasters accounts has reached 130 million in China and new accounts are added to over 43 thousand every day (China Internet Network Information Center, 2020).
Webcaster is a young job.Compared with the developed webcasting operational system, its occupational safety and health administration is still in its infancy.Webcasters are undertaking an excessiveness of working time or burden and a disturbance of working rhythm.Furthermore, some unique working features like keeping a fixed working posture, rapid decrement of fans amount, abuse from the audience in the broadcast site through the barrage, and failure for work performance appraisal from companies, etc. Unreasonable work arrangements produce a big work pressure and job stress.Long-term overload job stress further leads to a series of health problems.However, the vast majority of webcasters have not received occupational health support except basic medical insurance, or even without any medical insurance from the company.As a result, huge job stress, jobrelated health problems, lack of labor and social security are leading to a wide unhealthy employee turnover in webcasting companies.
Burnout is a state of physical and mental fatigue of laborers within the service industry due to long-term, high-intensity, and high-load work (Bianchi et al., 2015), characterized by emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and negative self-evaluation (Maslach et al., 2001).Burnout is one of the major outcomes of long-term unresolved job stress, which directly reduces the efficiency and quality of work but as well as harms physical and mental health, for instance, depression or insomnia (Jaegers et al., 2021;Sygit-Kowalkowska et al., 2021).Hence, burnout is not only an indicator of overload burden but also one crucial warning sign of health hazards.
Performing intervention before burnout occurs can effectively prevent occupational injuries.However, data on the prevalence of burnout in webcasters are very limited.This leads to insufficient evidence for identifying and early warning burnout among the webcaster population.
How to make job of webcaster become a sustainable long-term career?Job stress, job-related health problems, and deficient labor and health security regimes increase the occupational hazards and shorten the career longevity.Therefore, this study aims to investigate the prevalence and correlates of burnout among Chinese webcasters to provide evidence for making occupational health and safety policies in the webcasting industry.

Ethical approval and consent to participants
This study was a descriptive cross-sectional survey conducted in three broadcasting companies of Changsha, Hunan.This survey was conducted by WWW.WJX.CN and WENJUAN.COM, which were two secure electronic survey platforms in mainland China.All the procedures of this study were approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Hunan Normal University (permit number: 2021-283).All participants accepted voluntary participation and obtained electronic informed consent.Informed consents of participants aged 16 to 18 years obtained from their guardians.

Participants
This study was a descriptive cross-sectional survey.Participants were recruited via a random cluster sampling from broadcasting companies of Changsha, Hunan, between Oct.2021 and Nov.2021.Inclusion criteria: 1) the full-time webcaster; 2) over 16 years old; 3) a contract was signed with a webcasting company.Exclusion criteria: 1) the part-time webcasters who have not signed a contract with a webcasting company; 2) infection of certain nervous system related diseases or mental disorders affected their communication function, for instance, general anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, etc.
A total of 369 webcasters were recruited from four broadcasting companies to participate in the study.Of which, 11 had missing values on variables and were excluded from the present study resulted in the quailed ratio of 97%.Finally, 358 participants were included in our sample.

Dependent variable
Burnout.The burnout levels of webcasters were evaluated in the revised Chinese version of the Maslach burnout inventory-human services survey (MBI-HSS) (Zhang et al., 2006).Each item was rated on a 6-point score, ranging from 0 (none of the time) to 6 (every day).MBI-HSS is characterized by three dimensions, namely, 7item emotional exhaustion (EE), 3-item depersonalization (DP), and 7-item personal accomplishment (PA).We set the mean of each dimension as a critical value.Further, both high-EE and high-DP (above average) were judged as the group with high-burnout (Leigh et al., 2020).Such a criterion has been validated in many studies (Maslach et al., 1981;Rotenstein et al., 2018;Zhang et al., 2021).This study divided Chinese webcasters into a high-burnout group and low-burnout group for follow-up analysis.The Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the MBI-HSS, EE, DP, and PA were 0.96, 0.95, 0.90, and 0.94, respectively, suggesting that the overall measurement was reliable.

Independent variables
Socio-demographic characteristics.Age, gender, education (junior high school and below/high, vocational high, or technical secondary school/junior college/undergraduate), and income were collected.
Career-related factors.Seniority (less than 1 year/more than 1 year), the type of live stream (entertainment webcaster/game webcaster/other), work posture (prolonged standing/prolonged sitting/prolonged walking/no fixed position), the change of fans amount (a great increasement/a slight increasement/no obvious change/an obvious decrement), days for resting per month (less than 4 days/ more than 4 days), live broadcast duration (2-4h/4-6h/6-8h/>8h, preliminary investigations suggested that Chinese webcaster's daily live broadcast duration are at least 2h), live broadcast time (mostly at day/mostly at night), work performance appraisal (positive/negative), cyber violence experiment (Respondents need to answer the question "Have you experienced cyber violence": yes/no).
Job stress.Job stress is conceptualized as an imbalance of an individual's reaction between the individual's abilities and the work environment (Jamal et al., 2000).The scores of job stress of Chinese webcasters were measured by the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ-22).It was a 22-item self-report scale.Each item was rated on a 4-point score, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree).It was used to measure job demands (5 items), job control (9 items), and social support (i.e., supervisor and coworker support, 8 items), respectively (Ikeda et al., 2021).A high total score of job demands and job control suggested a serious level of job stress (Jiang et al., 2019).The Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the JCQ-22, job demands and job control were 0.94, 0.90, and 0.95, respectively, suggesting that the overall measurement was reliable.
Interpersonal support.Interpersonal support refers to some material or spiritual assistance obtained without compensation from social circle.The scores of interpersonal supports of Chinese webcasters were also measured by JCQ-22.It was used to measure job demands (5 items), job control (9 items), and social support (i.e., supervisor and coworker support, 8 items), respectively (Ikeda et al., 2021).A high score of social support meant a stronger level of interpersonal support (Jiang et al., 2019).The Cronbach's alpha coefficients for social support was 0.95.

Covariates
Age and gender are two covariates in our study which were measured in the content of socio-demographics.

Statistical analysis
SPSS software version 22.0 was used to perform statistical analysis.Socio-demographic and career-related factors were described and compared by t-test or Chi-square test.Multiple logistic regression with a back-step entry of significant variables in the above univariate analysis was used to identify factors significantly associated with burnout.Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to testify the associations between burnout and factors.The statistical significance level was set at P < 0.05 (two-tail).

Participant characteristics
Of the 358 webcasters, 57% of them are female; 68% of them are less than or equal to 25 years old; 38% of them have an educational background of junior college.The detailed socio-demographic characteristics are shown in Table 1.

Burnout level of webcaster
As for MBI-HSS score, we found that the average score of emotional exhaustion was 26.29; the average score of depersonalizations was 12.01; the average score of personal accomplishment was 28.24.Then, of the 358 webcasters, 46.09% (165 of 358, 95% CI: 40.90 ~ 51.02%) of them reached high burnout level and 54.91% (193 of 358) of them were low level burnout.

Univariate diffidence between high-and low-level burnout groups
The detailed socio-demographic characteristic, career-related factors, overall scores of job stress and interpersonal support were shown in Table 1.There are differences in burnout levels exist with the following characteristics among Chinese webcasters: educational background (P<0.001),monthly income (P<0.001),seniority (P<0.001),work posture (P=0.017),change of fans amount (P=0.013), the day for resting (P=0.001),live broadcast duration (P<0.001),live broadcast time (P<0.001),work performance appraisal (P=0.010), an experience of cyber violence (P<0.001).Also, significant differences both exist in various scores of job stress or interpersonal support among the population of Chinese webcasters (P<0.001).

Associated factors of burnout among webcasters
Results from multivariable logistic regression (Table 2) showed that factors significantly associated with burnout were an educational background of junior college (vs.undergraduate, OR=2.33), high, vocational high, or technical secondary school (vs.undergraduate, OR=3.48), junior high school and below (vs.undergraduate, OR=9.87); an average income of 5000-10000 (vs.> 10000, OR=2.41); seniority of more than 1 year (vs.seniority of less than 1 year, OR=2.34), an obvious decrement of fans amount (vs. a great increasement of fans amount, OR=4.37); a more than 4-day for resting (vs. a less than 4-day for resting OR=2.56); a 4-6h-daily live broadcast duration (vs.2-4h-daily live broadcast duration, OR=2.81), a 6-8h-daily live broadcast duration (vs. 2-4h-daily live broadcast duration, OR=3.59), a >8h-daily live broadcast duration (vs.2-4h-daily live broadcast duration, OR=3.57); a daily live broadcast time at night mostly (vs.mostly at day, OR=2.30); negative performance appraisal (vs.positive performance appraisal, OR=2.61); an ever cyber violence experience (vs.no experience of cyber violence, OR=6.79).Also, the difference was significant in job stress scores (OR=1.19)and interpersonal support scores between the two groups of "high-burnout" and "low-burnout" (OR=0.83).
We divided these associated factors into three categories: dynamic risk factor (losing fans, a longer live broadcast duration, negative performance appraisal, daily live broadcast time, and job stress), static risk factor (education, cyber violence, and seniority), and protective factor (interpersonal support).

Dynamic risk factors
Dynamic risk factors are changeable and provide the opportunity for intervention.Out study finds the dynamic risk factors include losing fans, a longer live broadcast duration, negative performance appraisal, and daily live broadcast time, as well as job stress.Among these factors, almost all are career-related factors except losing fans.An obvious decrement of fans' amount is a strong risk factor for burnout.Losing fans indicates a webcaster makes a mistake at work and it closely associates with work performance appraisal.
Career-related factors are the most concerned and discussed in detail.Compared to webcasters who have a live broadcast at night mostly, having a live broadcast at day mostly was a dangerous factor for Chinese webcasters' burnout, indicating that disturbance of circadian rhythm might be one of the important reasons for Chinese webcasters' burnout (Canadas-De et al., 2015).Excessive live broadcast duration and negative performance appraisal might also aggravate the burnout level of Chinese webcasters, which also indicates the working environment of the webcaster is still immature.Unreasonable work arrangements will result in a reduced work efficiency and some potential occupational hazard and health problem.Through scientific and reasonable planning and arrangements, work pressure and job stress can be alleviated.Hence, establishing a monitoring and control system towards dynamic risk factors will be beneficial for early warning of burnout among webcaster.

Static risk factors
Static risk factors are historical and do not change or passive and not easy to change, which indicates that it is difficult to intervene these factors to reduce the risk of burnout.Out study finds the static risk factors include education, cyber violence, and seniority.Webcaster with an education background of high school and below shows the highest risk of burnout.Worries resulted from low education are very common in many kinds of careers.However, lower education is the biggest risk factor of burnout in our study.This is an interesting phenomenon.Because when webcasters are hired by companies, they were not requiring a high education and which is also not deciding the webcaster income.We think the possible reason is that educational background may play a big role in peer competition and gain promotion in the course of work.Following education, cyber violence is the second biggest risk factor of burnout.Being bullied verbally online is quite common on online social media (Chen et al., 2018;France et al., 2013;Taein et al., 2020).Our study finds that cyber violence is a strong predictor of burnout in Chinese webcasters.For webcaster, cyber violence is difficult to avoid and there is no effective tools, approach, or mechanism to assess and copy with the injures resulted from cyber violence.We think it is necessary to provide regular training on cyber violence response methods, and provide regular psychological examination, as well as mental health services for webcaster.Seniority changes with the working years.But for individual employee, seniority is non-voluntary factor.In the present study, webcasters with more than 1 year of seniority have a higher risk of burnout.We speculate those who has longer seniority might appear poor creativity gradually and cause a decline in interaction or rewards during live broadcasts, thereby leading to burnout.Anyway, it is impossible to reduce the burnout risk through changing static risk factors directly.But this also reminds us that we could use classification management and different kinds of support approaches to control the risk of burnout among webcaster with different risk factors.

Protective factor
Interpersonal support is unlikely to directly cause burnout.A worse interpersonal support can intensify the bad effect of risk factors.However, a good interpersonal support can play a "buffer" effect between job stress and adverse outcomes including burnout.Good interpersonal support helps to reduce the individual traumatic feeling and assessment towards injury of job stress, and increase the self-efficiency and coping ability.

Limitations
First, our statistical model of burnout risk factors has implications for assessing the scale of risk on individual level.However, it needs to be noted there are individual differences in the types and contributions of risk factors between each other.Second, as there is no consensus on the diagnosis of burnout, it is difficult to compare the prevalence of burnout directly.A recent review found that the existing literature used at least 47 different definitions of the prevalence of burnout when using the MBI tool to measure burnout (Rotenstein et al., 2020).
Therefore, future studies need to reach a consensus on how to classify different degrees of burnout, thereby comparing with that of other occupations.Finally, we only described a basic situation of burnout but not discussed its three dimensions (namely EE, DP, and PA) in depth.In future research, the relationship between them and specific career-related factors of Chinese webcasters still need to be further analyzed.

Conclusion
Burnout is prevalent in Chinese webcasters.Correlates of webcasters' burnout can be classified into dynamic and static risk factors as well as protective factors.Dynamic risk factors include losing fans, longer live broadcast duration, negative performance appraisal, daily live broadcast time, lower income and job stress.
Static risk factors include higher seniority, lower education, and cyber violence.The protective factor is interpersonal support.These findings above proposed some new ideas that can be further applied to explore an occupational safety and health administration of Chinese webcasters.
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Table 1 .
Characteristics of participants and prevalence rate of burnout by variables

Table 2 .
Associated Factors for burnout among Chinese webcasters raw dataClick here to access/download Supporting Information rawdata.sav